


37 hours

by titaniumsansa



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Don't Try This At Home, Drabble, Exhaustion, F/F, Five Year Gap, Fluff, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepiness, Sleepovers, Snaibsel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 15:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17531045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/pseuds/titaniumsansa
Summary: Zatanna and Artemis stay up for 37 hours and deal with their exhaustion and their to-do list.





	37 hours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunkelles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/gifts).



> I wrote this when I was up for about 23 hours and then revised a little but figured the exhaustion would help with the overall tone of being exhausted as hell. Also there's nothing like working the night shift, then going out for breakfast after work.

They've been awake so long it feels like day 3 lived and died and day 4 has started already, but it hasn't and it won't for a long while. Artemis thinks that she could honestly sleep until Sunday at this point, but resists the urge to close her eyes. She could have gone home to Gotham but it was late when they got done with everything on their to-do list. It was a hell of a to-do list but Zatanna never does anything in halves, so of course, it was a little dangerous and a little epic. Of course, their list also took forever which is why she's next to Zatanna on a massive couch in Shadowcrest in the early hour.

  
Shadowcrest is strong and secure and Artemis didn't want to bother her mother in Gotham, and did let her know ahead of time she was with the Team, was staying the night, would be safe.  
Safe is such an odd guarantee, an odd promise to make, a shifting state and usually a shade of gray. Still, her mom accepted it, and didn't ask her to clarify who she was with.  
The truth might not have gone over quite as well as being vague, it was just Zatanna and Artemis doing recon for almost thirteen hours till they met Dick and Barbara for breakfast in a small, sleepy diner in Bludhaven. Artemis remembers it perfectly even if it takes her a moment to remember what day it was, they've all bled together already. It's been one really long day as far as she's concerned.

  
Dick and Barbara were on one side of the vinyl booth, grinning and too happy for the early hour. Breakfast is really good, but food always tastes better with friends. After a few cups of coffee each, and oversized plates of food, they finally started to wrap up breakfast. They all have places to be soon, and Artemis wonders if Dick and Barbara are eating dinner or breakfast. Still, when they all finished, Dick whips out his card before anyone else even thinks of money and Artemis frowns at him.  
It was a good breakfast, and there's almost an air of sadness to it, the moment is over and it'll never quite be like that again. While they're all in the superhero business, Artemis has never shaken the feeling that everything is changing all the time, they might not get the chance to do that again. They might go different ways and go solo, friends, but not as tight-knit as before. They might not as intense or reliant or full of information, with less time together and more time apart. It will change things, there's no doubt about it. College is on the horizon and it's not an end-all, but it is a great time of doubt.

  
Artemis doesn't doubt her friends, she just wonders about their paths. Dick and Barbara don't know about their plans, just know that they wanted to meet for breakfast. Still, the sun is rising and their time is limited, they're all leaving anyway. So Artemis follows Zatanna back to the zeta beam so they can grab their things and drive. There aren't always great perks to winter breaks, Artemis remembers too many where it meant no one was watching for bruises or fractures or sprains, memories of sleeping on cold wooden floors, bleeding into tiled floors.   
Still, this break hasn't been bad. Working has been fun and having the chance to do things without worrying about school has been nice. She'll still have to go to school, college is a must, her mother is insistent, but the break is nice for what it is.

  
The next thing on the to-do list is a few hours of exploring with Zatanna, forbidden, dark places human eyes probably haven't seen in a long time. They don't need to talk, there's not much to say that isn't obvious, and neither of them want to startle anything around them. They get what they came for though, after some elbow grease, puzzle solving, and teamwork. Eventually, they leave, going for lunch at a restaurant relatively nearby, any food sounds good even though nine hours ago was coffee, six hours after that was breakfast and dinner was seven hours before both. Time is an odd, inescapable thing. Artemis is pretty sure her body's given up on having an internal clock, especially with how often she's in other time zones.  
After lunch, they take a break, they visit New York for more coffee and a family run bakery Zatanna misses. They're too wired and too tired all at once but macarons, brownies, lemon bars, local coffee, and cookies are all too tempting. It's one of Zatanna's favorite places. The owners don't know or care who they are, they come infrequently at different days and different times that it's unlikely anyone recognizes them, and Artemis kind of likes that. It's nice to be anonymous among things you love, and that's not exactly easy for Zatanna. They go back to Shadowcrest with their coffee and bakery bags in hand to debate strategies. They have a plan, but the execution of it is the problem.  
There's a lot of planning to do and they're not quite in the best mental states to do it but they do it anyway. They'll have to sleep before they can pull off their plan, and that will come in time. The coffee isn't helping that but neither of them wants to be the first one to admit defeat against the tiredness in their bones or faces. They count the hours they've been up, eat through their baked goods and keep going like trains, they're staying on track full steam ahead, hard to stop. Eventually, they order pizza later that night and end up in the fuzzy space between being fully awake or fully asleep.

  
It's 3am when they make a pact. They've been up too long to be tired enough for sleep, 37 hours of three days straight. Fueled with adrenaline that faded eventually, caffeine, and too many thoughts to let them sleep, Zatanna suggests the pact.

  
"I don't know what today holds. I don't know what tomorrow holds considering it's already tomorrow and I don't know much about it. But what I do know is this. I want to be your friend. I never want to stop being your friend. If we have an issue let's work it out instead of letting it fester. Let's never let anyone come between us, especially boys," Zatanna proposes.  
Artemis yawns and while she could give in to the ease of sliding back onto the couch, the temptation of relaxation and escape taunting her, she sits up and agrees anyway. They got up Thursday afternoon and it's currently early into Saturday morning, and that's where they are, here, crashing but burning, falling, but together. Zatanna bites her lip and makes a face of contemplation Artemis recognizes. She will always recognize that face, even though any mental or emotional haze in her head or heart. The fog in her head is mostly complaining from her body, weariness, the tiredness of not being able to rest and reflect on what a crazy 37 hours they just endured.

  
"We've already passed the point where I get blunt with a lack of sleep. I want to be your friend until I die. That could be today. Someone could break my skull into the pavement and end me. That would be the end. I could also die 80 years from now, but I don't want to go through the rest of my life without you next to me. I want my best friend. You're my first best friend and I want you to be the last, you know? That's not a territorial thing either, it's just, you know things I don't ever plan to tell anyone else. You're the top of the chain and you always will be," Artemis confesses.

The pact is made, binding in every way that matters, and with that, they close their eyes and sleep a few minutes after they hit hour 37.

They'll change the world and their lives tomorrow, but until then, they'll sleep.


End file.
